Your World and You: Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health – Issue 68 (Premium)
Environmental and Nutritional Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health
This feature highlights reports, studies, and feedback on efforts that can positively impact our quest for health. The topics we cover in this issue are listed below. We invite you to share material with us that you think would interest our readers.
Articles in this issue
- Facts and myths About Irlen Syndrome
- New natural food colors approved
- Can magnet therapy reset the brain in depression?
- Nighttime screens lead to poor sleep quality
- A new clue to why younger people are getting more colon cancer
- Can honey really heal wounds?
- New: Long-term treatment of ADHD linked to cardiovascular disease
- Why you need to get up and move more often!
Facts and myths About Irlen Syndrome
Irlen.com offers new clarification on the Irlen Method and practices and policies followed by certified Irlen Screeners and Diagnosticians. Here’s the summary. The link at the end gives helpful, detailed explanations.
- Irlen Syndrome is distinct from optical issues and dyslexia
- The Irlen Method does not take the place of an eye exam, and Irlen-trained practitioners require vision issues be addressed by a licensed eye-care professional before an Irlen assessment
- The Irlen organization does not recommend or endorse color as a treatment for dyslexia
- Peer-reviewed studies from around the world provide confirmation for the existence of Irlen Syndrome as a light-based visual processing problem, and evidentiary support for the Irlen Method and the interventions provided by certified professionals
- The Irlen colorscription is designed to address your unique spectral sensitivities in a way that standard colors from a store or eye doctor don’t
New natural food colors approved
Three new color additives have been approved for use in food and drink to replace some of the petroleum-based dyes currently in use in the USA. The three dyes are galdieria extract blue, butterfly pea flower extract and calcium phosphate. The FDA said in a statement that the move is “in line with US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s priority to phase out petroleum-based dyes in the nation’s food supply as part of the administration’s broader initiative to Make America Healthy Again”, an initiative launched when President Trump took office.
Can magnet therapy reset the brain in depression?
It’s estimated that 30% to 40% of people with depression do not get relief from anti-depressants. Among a number of new approaches, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is being studied at the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.
Nighttime screens lead to poor sleep quality
Light emitted by smartphones, tablets, and laptops can delay the release of melatonin by suppressing the pineal gland, increasing the time it takes to fall asleep and disrupting circadian rhythm. As a result, the study found that adults who used their devices within an hour before bedtime . . . had a 33% higher prevalence of poor sleep quality.
Of the more than 122 000 participants, only 17% reported no screen use before bed, indicating its broad effects on adult sleep health.
A new clue to why younger people are getting more colon cancer
A groundbreaking new study published in Nature yesterday sheds light on the alarming rise of colorectal cancer in younger adults. Researchers sequenced the DNA of colorectal cancer tumors from 981 patients across 11 countries and discovered a significant link between colibactin-producing bacteria and early-onset disease.
The study found that DNA mutations associated with colibactin, a genotoxic compound produced by certain strains of E. coli, were 3.3 times more prevalent in patients under 40 compared to those over 70.
Colorectal cancer rates have been steadily increasing in younger populations, baffling researchers and clinicians alike. While lifestyle factors like diet and exercise play a role, they don’t fully explain this concerning trend. This new research points to a potential bacterial culprit, offering a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Can honey really heal wounds?
The answer is yes, but not all honey is the same. Medical grade honey must meet stringent standards: it must come from certified organic sources, be free of contaminants and undergo gamma sterilization to eliminate potentially harmful micro-organisms, such as Clostridium botulinum spores.
One of the most common types of medicinal honey is mānuka honey from New Zealand or Australia. “Mānuka honey is produced by honeybees foraging on the mānuka tree—Leptospermum scoparium—and contains high concentrations of methylglyoxal, a compound with remarkable antimicrobial properties,” Matoori explained. Manuka honey can be purchased, although at a higher cost than more common honey.
Long-term treatment of ADHD linked to cardiovascular disease
A large proportion of patients who start taking ADHD medication, especially young adults, stop within the first year. However, people who use ADHD medicine for a long time and in higher-than-average doses (1.5 times higher) seem to have a higher risk of some cardiovascular diseases. This is according to two new studies led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet and published in The Lancet Psychiatry and JAMA Psychiatry.
The researchers analysed prescription data from over 1.2 million patients who started ADHD medication in Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, Sweden and the USA. The pattern was the same in all countries/regions.
In another study conducted with over 275,000 Swedish ADHD patients published in JAMA Psychiatry, Dr Chang and his research group examined ADHD medication use for up to 14 years. They were then able to show that ADHD medication when taken for a longer time and in higher doses than average is associated with a higher risk of some cardiovascular diseases, primarily hypertension and arterial disease.
Why you need to get up and move more often!
Based on decades-long observations of centenarians, author Dan Buettner (Blue Zones) conjectures that people live longer when they get up and move around after sitting for twenty minutes. Now, a rigorous new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) has data showing that older women who sat for 11.7 hours or more per day increased their risk of death by 30 percent, regardless of whether they exercised vigorously.
Sedentary behavior is a health risk because it reduces muscle contractions, blood flow and glucose metabolism. “When you’re sitting, the blood flow throughout your body slows down, decreasing glucose uptake. Your muscles aren’t contracting as much, so anything that requires oxygen consumption to move the muscles diminishes, and your pulse rate is low,” said LaCroix.
Unfortunately, exercise cannot undo these negative effects. According to the study, whether women participated in low or high amounts of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity, they showed the same heightened risk if they sat for long hours.
